Temporary protection in Czechia (for people from Ukraine)

Temporary protection (dočasná ochrana) is the right to stay in Czechia that the EU gave people fleeing the war in Ukraine. This page covers how to get it, keep it and move on from it. It isn't legal advice, and the last section says when to get some.

What is temporary protection, and how long does it last?

It's a right of residence: the Council of the EU decides who is covered, and a Czech law known as Lex Ukrajina applies that decision here.¹ You get it as a visa sticker in your passport, valid to 31 March of the following year.² Temporary protection granted or extended in Czechia currently runs to 31 March 2027.³

EU Council Implementing Decision 2026/1912 of 30 July 2026 extends protection in the EU to 4 March 2028.⁴ The Ministry of the Interior says the Czech extension, to 31 March 2028, will work as in past years: an online registration, then a visit to an office for a new sticker.⁴

Who can get it, and how do you apply?

You can get it if you're a Ukrainian citizen who lived in Ukraine before 24 February 2022 and then left, if you had international protection in Ukraine, or if you're a family member who left with them.³ Foreigners who held permanent residence in Ukraine and can't safely return to their own country can get it too.¹

Since 5 August 2026, people aged 18 to 60 with military obligations in Ukraine must show they've met them to get protection. This covers first and repeat applications and family members joining someone here, but not people who held valid protection on 30 July 2026 and have kept it in Czechia without a break.⁴ Ages 18 to 22 show their registration in the Reserv+ app and a printed military record (eVOD); ages 23 to 60 need a printed record showing they are fully exempt.³ With the printout, you also show on your phone, in Reserv+, that the record is current; a screenshot isn't accepted.³ Instead, you can bring a printout certified by the Ukrainian embassy no more than 3 working days before you apply, or a Ukrainian exit stamp dated 5 August 2026 or later in a valid passport together with the eVOD.³

You can't get it if you already have temporary or international protection in another EU country, have or had on 24 February 2022 a residence permit for more than 90 days in Czechia or permanent residence elsewhere, or hold the special long-term residence. EU citizens can't get it either.³⁵

Apply in person: at a regional assistance centre for Ukraine (KACPU) if you arrived after 24 February 2022, otherwise at a Ministry of the Interior office.³ Bring:

1. the application form, which you can fill in beforehand;
2. your passport, or another identity document;
3. proof that you were in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, such as stamps in your passport;
4. proof of accommodation: a lease, or the owner's confirmation with an officially verified signature. You don't need it if you live in state humanitarian housing.³²

The office can grant protection on the spot; in complex cases the law gives it up to 60 days.² A parent or guardian applies for a child under 15; at 15 to 18, the child applies in person with them.³ The proof of accommodation page prepares the owner's confirmation.

If you don't qualify and can't go home, you can ask the ministry for a toleration visa (vízum za účelem strpění) for 300 Kč, but it gives no public health insurance, no humanitarian benefit and no free access to work.³

How do you extend it each year?

In two steps, and missing either one ends your protection.⁶

1. Register online by 15 March. The form is on the ministry's website; you give your address and, for a child, the school. A parent registers a child under 15. A confirmation e-mail gives you an appointment, and the registration covers you from 1 April to 30 September.⁶
2. Go to the office by 30 September for a new sticker, valid to 31 March of the next year. Bring proof of accommodation if you moved without reporting it or if your registered address is the office's; without it, the sticker isn't issued. If you miss your appointment, book a new one online.⁶

If you were granted protection in 2026, it's already valid to 31 March 2027.³ The ministry hasn't published the 2027 details yet.⁴ The law itself sets the deadlines, 15 March and 30 September, and the government can, by decree, drop the office visit in an extraordinary situation.⁶

What must you report, and what about housing?

Report a new address to the Ministry of the Interior within 3 working days if you'll stay there longer than 15 days, with proof of accommodation; you can also do it online.⁸ Other changes, such as a new passport, are reported as under the Foreigners Act.⁸ The notice of changes for temporary protection fills in the form, and Register your address has the deadlines for every other status.

Keep your registered address real. The ministry cancels it if it was registered on wrong details, if the owner declares your right to live there has ended, or if you've been away from it for more than 15 days and the police or the town report it. Your address then becomes the office's.⁸ After 90 days at the office's address, your protection ends.⁹ The ministry suggests checking the address it holds on the Citizen Portal (Portál občana).³

Carry your passport with the sticker at all times: a copy isn't enough.³

State humanitarian housing is free once, for at most 90 days in a row from your first grant of protection. Turning down a place or leaving it without a serious reason uses up that right, and so does being away for more than 10 days without telling the provider.¹⁰

Can you work, and who pays for health insurance?

You can work without a work permit: for the Employment Act, you count as a permanent resident.¹¹

From the day you're granted protection, you're in Czech public health insurance, and the state pays for it if you're neither employed nor self-employed.¹²¹³ After 90 days, adults from 18 until their 65th birthday count as permanent residents.¹² An employer pays for an employee. The state keeps paying for groups such as registered job seekers, a parent caring for a child under 7, and people on parental allowance. Anyone else without a job pays their own premiums.¹³¹⁴ The state also keeps paying for children, people aged 65 and over, someone whose long-term health stops them working, and one person caring for them.¹²¹³ A baby born here is covered for at most its first 60 days, so apply for the baby's protection within that time.¹² A student up to 26 at a school or university in Ukraine counts as a dependent child.¹² Health insurance explains insurers and cards.

What is the humanitarian benefit?

It's a monthly payment for people with temporary protection whose income and property here don't cover their basic needs and housing.¹⁵ People who live together and share costs are assessed together and get one benefit, and it isn't paid if you get free accommodation with full board.¹⁵ You apply for each month by the end of that month, online after your first application.¹⁵ The Labour Office (Úřad práce) pays it into an account at a bank in Czechia; only the benefit for the month you were granted protection can be paid in cash.¹⁵ Receiving it from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026 ruled people out of the special long-term residence.¹⁶

How do you move to the special long-term residence?

Through the special long-term residence permit (zvláštní dlouhodobý pobyt), a five-year permit that starts when you collect the card.¹⁶ There's no legal claim to it. Later rounds come only if the government announces them, and only people who expressed interest in the 2026 round can take part.¹⁶¹⁷

The first round took expressions of interest from 1 to 30 April 2026, online with an electronic identity, and registers the people who passed the checks from 1 October to 31 December 2026.¹⁸ Both spouses had to express interest, and a parent included the children.¹⁶ To pass, everyone in the household had to meet these conditions on the dates the government set:¹⁶¹⁸

• a valid passport;
• two years of continuous temporary protection in Czechia by 1 April 2026, and no break from then until the card;
• two years in Czech public health insurance with no unpaid premiums by 31 March 2026 (neither two-year rule applies to children);
• income in 2025, and a Czech tax base, of at least 440,000 Kč, plus 110,000 Kč for each other person registered with you, with a tax return filed by 4 May 2026 if you had to file one;
• no humanitarian benefit from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026;
• a reported address that isn't the office's;
• children aged 6 to 14 attending school in Czechia.

If one person fails a condition, the whole household fails.¹⁶ Each person's results show in their account on the ministry's portal.¹⁷

If you passed, register online by 31 December 2026 for the whole household; the booking is part of the registration, and you can change or replace the appointment only once.¹⁸¹⁷ At the office, everyone in the household gives fingerprints and a photo and shows their passport and proof of family ties (no certified translation needed). The fee is 2,500 Kč per card, or 1,000 Kč under 15, paid by card.¹⁶¹⁷ Before the card, the ministry checks your protection hasn't lapsed, your criminal record from age 15 and security. You collect the card within 60 days of the fingerprints, all together, apart from children under 6.¹⁶¹⁷

What changes once you hold it:

• Work. You still need no work permit.¹¹
• Health insurance. Employees stay in public insurance; the self-employed and people without a job buy comprehensive insurance themselves, and parents pay public insurance for their children.¹⁷
• Benefits. No humanitarian benefit and no non-insurance benefits such as child benefit or the housing allowance.¹⁷
• Driving. Register any car you keep here, and exchange a licence from outside the EU within 3 months of collecting the card (Driving licence).¹⁷
• Other permits. You can switch only to a family, study, research or Blue Card permit, and any other permit ends this one.¹⁹
• Time abroad. It isn't extended if you spend more than 12 months in a row outside the EU without a serious reason.¹⁹
• Permanent residence. The special residence counts in full towards the five years, and your earlier temporary protection counts half. Permanent residence covers the rest.²⁰

What about children, school and travel?

School is compulsory for children with temporary protection: they must start compulsory school, or the compulsory pre-school year, within 90 days of being granted protection.²¹ Online lessons at a Ukrainian school don't replace it.³ Schools explains enrolment. A parent or guardian registers a child under 15 for the extension and collects the child's sticker.⁶

Travel can end your protection. It ends if you apply for temporary protection in another EU country, apply for asylum in another EU country, or receive a long-term visa, a residence permit or international protection anywhere.⁹ For example, a UK "Ukraine Scheme" visa used for the journey ends it, while a UK visitor visa for up to 183 days doesn't.³ A long absence can also cost you your registered address, and then your protection.⁸⁹

If you leave Czechia for good, give up your protection in writing: in person at a regional assistance centre if you have a biometric passport, otherwise at a ministry office, by post with an officially verified signature, or at a Czech embassy abroad. It can't be done online or by e-mail.³

When should you ask for help?

Ask an immigration lawyer, or a non-profit adviser for foreigners, if your protection has ended, an office won't issue a sticker, the special residence checks say you fail a condition you think you meet, or you want to change to another permit. The ministry's information line for foreigners is +420 974 801 801.³

Sources

1. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §2 and §3(1) and (2). ↩ ↩²

2. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §5(1)(a), (4) and (5), and §6(1). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Ministry of the Interior, "Dočasná ochrana", ipc.gov.cz. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1912 of 30 July 2026, Articles 1 and 2; Ministry of the Interior, "Prodloužení dočasné ochrany do roku 2028 a úprava podmínek pro její udělení", ipc.gov.cz, and "Evropská unie zpřísňuje podmínky pro udělení dočasné ochrany občanům Ukrajiny", 4 August 2026, mv.gov.cz. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §5(1)(c) to (e) and §7u(1). ↩

6. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7b(1) and (3) to (9), §7c(1) and §7g. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7d(1); Ministry of the Interior, "Dočasná ochrana", ipc.gov.cz. ↩

8. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §6(10) and §6a(1) to (4). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §5(8). ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §6b(2) and (5). ↩

11. Act 66/2022 Coll., on measures in employment and social security, §2. ↩ ↩²

12. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7(2) to (4). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. Public Health Insurance Act (Act 48/1997 Coll.), §5 and §7(1)(c), (e), (k) and (o). ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Premiums Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §2(1) and §3b. ↩

15. Act 66/2022 Coll., on measures in employment and social security, §6(1), (6) and (7), and §6c(1). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

16. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7o to §7t. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

17. Ministry of the Interior, "Zvláštní dlouhodobý pobyt", with its pages on the process, registration and what holders should know, ipc.gov.cz. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

18. Government Decree 86/2025 Coll., §2 and §4, and the annex, as amended by Government Decree 28/2026 Coll. ↩ ↩² ↩³

19. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7w(2), (3) and (5). ↩ ↩²

20. Lex Ukrajina (Act 65/2022 Coll.), §7w(6); Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §68(1) and §69(5)(b); Ministry of the Interior, "Obecné informace ke zvláštnímu dlouhodobému pobytu", ipc.gov.cz. ↩ ↩² ↩³

21. Act 67/2022 Coll., on measures in education related to the war in Ukraine, §2b. ↩